This invention relates to a water closet or toilet which is conventional in every respect except for the fill valve control that prevents any continued flow of water from the storage tank. A characteristic feature of this invention is the provision of a reservoir in which the water level responsive fill valve operates independent from the water storage tank water level. Accordingly, a conventional toilet bowl (not shown) supports a conventioanl storage tank equipped with the usual overflow pipe and flush valve unit heretofore referred as the "Douglas valve", and the usual level control means heretofore referred to as the "ball-cock". The level control means restores the storage tank water level after each flushing, and the flush valve releases the stored water at a rapid rate for flushing the toilet bowl. State of the art level control fill valve units and flush valve units are shown herein, it being understood that there is a wide variety of such valves as they are supplied as replaceable units.
It is a general object of this invention to prevent storage tank leakage when the flush valve unit deteriorates and water flow cannot be stopped thereby. However, the fill valve level control means is far more reliable and its failure, if at all, is taken care of by the overflow pipe of the flush valve unit. In practice, deterioration of the flush valve results is gradually increased leakage which lowers the water level in the storage tank, or sudden breakage can occur, and with a conventional installation this wasteful failure is automatically compensated for by the level responsive fill valve unit which continuously discharges water into the storage tank. It is this automatic wasteful compensation that is eliminated by this invention, in that no water can be continuously discharged into and drained from the storage tank. A one-time-only discharge of a full tank of water can occur, this reservoir fill valve control preventing any further drainage from the storage tank which then remains dry until repair is made.
It is an object of this invention to isolate the fill valve from the storage tank and make it responsive to a separate water level that changes according to the normal flushing cycle of the toilet and not affected by a leaking flush valve or flush valve failure that results in an empty storage tank.
It is an object of this invention to provide a control reservoir with a fill means and syphon means whereby 1) storage tank water fills said reservoir so that the fill valve shuts OFF the water supply and maintains a "full" level thereof in both the reservoir and the storage tank; and 2) reservoir water discharges in response to flushing when the storage tank water discharges. In the passive ready-to-flush condition the storage tank and control reservoir have a common water level, the reservoir having been filled by overflow water from the storage tank. In and during the flush condition the drop of the storage tank water level automatically initiates syphoning of water from the control reservoir to lower the water level therein for response by the fill valve to discharge supply water into the storage tank. At the end of the fill condition the high level of storage tank water overflows into the control reservoir to raise the water level therein and shut OFF the fill valve. And, in the event of a leaking storage tank or flush valve failure the control reservoir water level remains high so that the fill valve is shut OFF. A feature is the submerged control reservoir and syphon that is fully primed and dormant when the flushing system is in the passive condition, syphoning of the control reservoir being immediately initiated in response to water level drop in the storage tank during a normal flushing operation.
Another object of this invention is to provide a restart valve for the flushing system. For example, if the storage tank is empty and the control reservoir full, the fill valve will be shut OFF. In order to fill the storage tank in a normal manner, I have provided a syphon that discharges the reservoir so that the fill valve responds to turn ON the water supply to the storage tank. The syphon is an accessible spring biased manually operable tube.
Still another object of this invention is to provide for inherent filling of the control reservoir in the event of a catastrophic failure in the flushing system. For example, the storage tank may be rendered incapable of filling. in which case the fill valve would normally remain open or ON. However, the conventional refill tube of the fill valve is employed to discharge into said control reservoir and is metered to fill the same within a determined short length of time.